Email Marketing Metrics Report

Click Rates

October 2014 Edition

A click rate measures recipients' responses to an email message. MailerMailer bases this figure on the unique clicks within a message. This means we disregard multiple clicks on a link by a single recipient. Clicks on similar links within a single message are also not factored into our statistics. Both HTML and text-only messages can be used when determining click rates.

There's no single benchmark when it comes to click rate. This metric depends on a variety of factors, including the nature of the calls to action, the number of links, the opt-in process, personalization, and segmentation/targeting.

In spite of this, analysts have still been able to determine the threshold for successful campaigns. Most B2C (business-to-customer) campaigns range from 2% to 12%, while their B2B (business-to-business) counterparts range from 5% to 15% i.

Calculating a click rate: The method for calculating the click rate of an email campaign involves dividing the number of unique clicks by the number of total recipients. This is then expressed as a percentage.

Click Rates Trend

The first half of 2013 produced an average click rate of 1.9%, while the second half produced a rate of only 1.6%. Both halves decreased since 2012. As was the case in the previous year, the most recent findings showed that the first half-year's click rate was higher than that of the second half-year. However, the difference between this year's figures was slightly greater than the difference between the 2012 numbers.

Average Click Rate Over the Past Ten Halves

Average Click Rate by Number of Links

In past years, our reports have shown a correlation between the click rate and the number of links in an email. As one increased, so did the other. The 2013 data sustained this trend.

Messages featuring 21 or more links achieved the highest click rate of 2.4%. In contrast, messages with only 1-5 links had a click rate of 1.1%.

Average Click Rate by Number of Links

Average Click Rate by Industry

The following graph compares the click rates of 34 industries. The top three groups were Arts and Crafts (3.6%); Food, Beverage and Agriculture (3.3%); and Transportation (3.2%). The latter saw a particularly large jump of 0.6% in 2013, while the other two fluctuated less dramatically.

At 0.4%, the lowest click rate came from the Restaurant, Bar and Night Club industry. The Hobbies group tied with the Computers, Electronics and Software group for second-lowest at 0.7%.